The Government has quietly announced a major change to the law that will stop Commanding Officers in the Armed Forces investigating soldiers’ allegations of sexual assault themselves – but they still won’t have to refer complaints to civilian police.

The proposed changes to the Armed Forces Act 2006 come after years of campaigning by soldiers, bereaved families and Liberty – and after Liberty threatened the Ministry of Defence (MoD) with legal action on behalf of a serving soldier if it failed to close the loophole.

As manifestos are frantically drawn up, Liberty calls on all political parties to take this chance to take a stand for the principles and laws that protect the rights of ordinary people across the UK, day in, day out.

We urge them to commit to protecting our Human Rights Act and maintaining our membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.

As schools across the country break up for the holidays, we’re hopeful pupils will return in the New Year to an announcement from the Department for Education (DfE) that age-appropriate sex and relationship education (SRE) will be added to the national curriculum for all primary and secondary schools.

For those of us whose school years are fast fading into the distance, it might come as a surprise that this isn’t already mandatory in our modern world.

The Royal Military Police (RMP) has formally apologised to the family of Corporal Anne-Marie Ellement for failing to properly investigate the allegation of rape she made two years before taking her own life, following the threat of legal action by the family.

In a statement released today, the RMP – the Army’s internal police force – admits that “mistakes were made” in the investigation and that “Anne-Marie deserved better”.

The Attorney General has given consent for the family of Private Sean Benton – who died at Deepcut barracks 21 years ago – to apply to the High Court for a fresh inquest into the circumstances around his death.

Liberty, acting on behalf of Pte Benton’s twin brother Tony Benton and sister Tracy Lewis, lodged a formal application with the Attorney General on 8 July 2015 requesting that the original inquest of July 1995 be quashed and a fresh one ordered.